1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to self-contained articles and methods for applying to a surface of a human body an electrical potential generated by a piezoelectric element actuated by a motion of a human body. The articles are useful for augmenting, reducing or eliminating the need to take certain medications, to increase the effectiveness of physical therapy, to reduce pain, to provide stimulation and for other applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Devices for application of electrical potentials to the surface of a human body is date to at least 1886 and U.S. Pat. No. 334,879. In the intervening century, the science of electrotherapy has been highly improved and devices for its use have become increasingly more sophisticated. Modern applications of electrotherapy include, among others, ionophoresis for transdermal administration of drugs, treatment of pathologies such as cellulitus, electrocicatirization of wounds or injuries to promote healing, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to relieve neurogenic or musculoskeletal pain, or to reduce edema. In a particular area of interest, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0042635 A1 described the use of electrotherapy for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. However, coincident with this progress, electrotherapy devices have also become much more complex.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,295,585 described a device that generated therapeutic current pulses where the pulse rate during active periods could be varied and the length of active and inactive periods could be varied independently. Other devices for creating therapeutic electrical currents of controlled waveform were described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,718,132, 3,880,170, 3,893,462, 3,946,745, 4,155,366, 4,240,437, 4,682,601 and U.S. Patent Application Publications 2003/0191506 A1, and 2003/0195590 A1. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,431,000 and 4,541,432 described devices that generated pseudo-random pulses. Each of these devices involved complex circuitry and was powered externally or by batteries of limited life that needed periodic replacement.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,546,286 B1 described an electrotherapy device with an external pedal operated power supply. U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,694 described an implanted piezoelectric generator connected to a power-consuming device such as a pacemaker. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2004/0073267 A1 described an implanted micro-electromagnetic generator.
Each of these references represented an advance in the state of the art, however none suggested the devices of this invention, and none satisfies all of the needs met by this invention. A need has long existed for a self-contained electrotherapy device that can be worn on a body, is powered by the motion of a body, is simple, and produces random waveforms without the need for complex circuitry.